$100 in 1931 is worth $1,510 in 2012,
because prices increased 1410.5% over that period, an average of
3.41% a year.
$100 in 1931 has
the same buying power as
$1,510
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1410.5%
Average inflation rate
3.41% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,510
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,410
CPI in 1931
15.2
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1931 → 2012
$1,510
$100 in 2012 → 1931
$6.62
What happened to prices between 1931 and 2012
Between 1931 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.2 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1410.5%, which works out to an average of
3.41% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1931 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2012: the 1931 dollar
lost 93.4% of its purchasing power over
these 81 years.
Consumer prices fell 9.0% in 1931, a sharp acceleration from the 2.3% decline
in 1930, as falling wages, collapsing farm prices, and a fresh
wave of bank failures fed a downward spiral that the still-contracting
economy could not shake. More than 2,000 banks failed during the year, far
more than in 1930, as depositors who had watched earlier banks go under
pulled their cash out of ones they feared were next. The crisis went
international that September, when Britain suspended the gold standard amid
a run on sterling. The Federal Reserve’s response made the domestic downturn
worse before it made anything better: to defend the dollar’s own gold
backing, the Fed raised its discount rate sharply that October, in two steps
from 1.5% to 3.5%, tightening credit at the exact moment the economy needed
the opposite. Not every headline that year was grim. The Empire State
Building opened its doors on May 1, briefly the tallest building in the
world, though so much of Manhattan’s office space sat vacant amid the
Depression that tenants stayed scarce and New Yorkers took to calling it the
“Empty State Building.” Consumer prices had now fallen for two straight
years and stood 53.5% above their 1913 level, down from the
68.7% margin of just twelve months before. First-class postage remained at 2
cents.
Every 1931 amount converts to 2012 at the same ratio, 15.10: $1,000 becomes
$15,105, and $10,000 becomes $151,049.
Amount in 1931
Value in 2012
$1.00
$15.10
$5.00
$75.52
$10.00
$151
$20.00
$302
$50.00
$755
$100
$1,510
$500
$7,552
$1,000
$15,105
$5,000
$75,524
$10,000
$151,049
$100,000
$1,510,487
$1,000,000
$15,104,868
Inflation by spending category, 1931–2012
Between 1931 and 2012, food rose the most, up 1712.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 473.9%, against 1410.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1931
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1931 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.41%
$1,510
Food
3.64%
$1,812
Apparel
2.18%
$574
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1931: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1931 to 2012
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and fell in the 1930s (0.9% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1931–2012 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1931, at end
1931–1940
-0.91%
-7.9%
$92.11
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$159
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$195
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$255
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$542
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$860
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$1,133
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$1,435
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$1,510
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1931
$100 from 1931 had already become $266 by
1971, on its way to $1,510 in 2012; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 14.4% in 1947, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2012
In 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1931 had the buying
power of $1,510; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1931 to 2012: $100 is worth $1,510 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1931 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1931-to-2012/